May 2003 e the other press © Culture Bie Released by: ADV Running Time: 100 Minutes Running time: 125 minutes. Nick Hogg OP Game Guy With only a handful of Excel Saga episodes left there is still no plot in sight, but it doesn’t really matter considering it would be bad form to break the mold of the previous episodes. This DVD can be pretty much labeled as a sampler pack, with each episode giving a character 22 minutes in the spotlight. So it seems no plot, no problem with Excel. We've all heard this before, great video quality with great sounding 2.0 channel English and Japanese voice tracks. A note on the English voice track; I found out why ADV had to change voice actors for Excel. It seems Jessica Cavello had to stop voice acting under doctor's orders; apparently Excel is a little too crazy to be done by a normal human. This time around the menu was much improved over the last vol- ume—it actually had animation clips playing. It’s a simple bubble design, with a large amount of guitar transitions to entertain the menu explorer. For the Extra’s section there are the usual production sketches, but along with that are two gag trailers for semi-fictional shows. The first of these fake trailers is for Municipal Force Daiganzin, supposedly from an episode of Excel Saga. The second is for something called Puni Puni Poemy, also by Excel, it’s a magical girl anime with no plot. I guess Nabeshin didn’t learn anything from direct- ing Excel Saga. Municipal Force Daiganzin, along with their two android friends, are our favourite city-paid keepers of peace—dressed up as power ranger look-a-likes. Now how this becomes Nick Hogg OP Game Guy In the tradition of about three dozen other anime projects, Saiyuki is a take on the time-old tale of Journey to the West, but this rendition is a bit off in left field. Most interpreta- tions of Journey to the West are meant for the whole family, but Saiyuki is for those of us who prefer the adult version of the story. This is a violence-filled anime—and it contains a large helping of comedy and inappropriateness to boot—so don’t expect some seriously toned anime here. Seeing as this series is only a couple of years old, the ani- mation looks great and the transfer to DVD seems flawless. The tracks come in a 2.0 channel original Japanese dub, and a new 5.1 channel English dub. I have to praise the English dub on this one, not only was the 5.1 surround great to lis- ten to, but the voice acting was superb and I haven't heard that much casual swearing in a long time. As for the menu, this volume has a very stylized set of black and white draw- ings playing in the background of the main screen, and there is more blood in the sub screens than I have ever seen used in a menu before. Overall it was easy to navigate, but lacked a scene selection option, which was a minor annoyance. As for the extras, there is an excellent six-page section explain- ing a lot of the back story of Journey to the West for those not as familiar with it. As well there is the standard run of pro- duction sketches, and the usual clean open and close anima- http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca_ =e funny is when you give crazy people suits with powers that they don’t want to be in, and tell them to fight any type crime no matter how small. After that we have Menchis Great Adventure 2, where Menchi is traveling around the world with a girl who is fending off assassination attempts by some sort of cyborg. Then we have another forced re-cap episode—this one playing out the adventures of everyone's favourite immigrant worker, Pedro—and this makes less sense as it goes on. And finally, if you thought they were run- ning out of ideas, there is a rock anime episode chalk full of sexual innuendo, and probably the first episode in a long while to give Illpallazo a decent amount of screen time. It was nice to see more ACROSS focus, and apparently it isn’t just an organization with three members. Hopefully, this will be a sign of things to come with the remaining five episodes. Will ACROSS take over the city of F, or will they fail as usual? Will Hyatt live though an episode? What am I, psychic? We'll just have to wait until the end of April to find out. If you're already collecting Excel Saga then this volume is a must, and if not, you must be waiting for a box set. It’s never a happy thought when things are almost over, but we can look forward to the Puni Puni Poemy OVA, which I assume someone will bring over soon, because nothing's more fun than no-plot gag anime. tions. And if you decide to purchase Volume 1 with the set, you get a very nice box to hold the six DVDs as well as a very nice Saiyuki t-shirt, which thankfully is not white like a lot of the other shirts ADV gives away with box sets. Since this is a variation of Journey to the West, we all have a vague idea of the story, but what makes Saiyuki stand out is its unique renditions of these classic characters. There is Sanzo Genjo, an irreverent priest, who smokes, drinks, gam- bles, carries a demon-banishing gun, and smacks his com- panions upside the head with a paper fan whenever they become unruly. There is Son Goku, a childish, bottomless food pit, who is born from a stone demon egg, and wields the classic red extendable staff. Then there is the half- human/half-water demon, Gojyo, who womanizes, gambles successfully, drinks, smokes like a chimney, and wields a cres- cent blade attached to a chain on a staff. Rounding out this immature foursome is Hakkai, who is a kind, good-natured demon, full of dry wit, but with a dark and bloody past. And finally there is Hawkeroo, Hakkai’s pet dragon, who pro- vides transportation by turning into a World War II era jeep. We're left with the first five episodes starting off this jour- ney, combining a good mix of comedy, great action scenes, and a great set of characters on either side of the good and evil fence. Page 13